Frank Lloyd Wright

Frank Lloyd Wright, Oak Park, Illinois, circa 1900

William Drummond, Oak Park, Illinois, acquired from the above, circa 1909

Thence by descent

Private Collection

McClelland & Rachen, New York

Acquired from the above by the present owner, 2005

Grant Carpenter Manson, Frank Lloyd Wright to 1910: The First Golden Age, New York, 1958, pp. 92 (for an archival photograph of the present table in Frank Lloyd Wright’s studio)

Edgar Kaufmann, Jr., Frank Lloyd Wright at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1985, pp. 11 (for an archival photograph of the present table in Frank Lloyd Wright’s studio)

Grant Carpenter Manson, Frank Lloyd Wright: The Early Works of Frank Lloyd Wright, The “Ausgeführte Bauten” of 1911, Toronto, 1982, p. 106 (for an archival photograph of the present table in Frank Lloyd Wright’s studio)

William Allin Storrer, The Frank Lloyd Wright Companion, Chicago, 1993, p. 7 (for an archival photograph of the present table in Frank Lloyd Wright’s studio)

Thomas A. Heinz, Frank Lloyd Wright: Interiors and Furniture, New York, 1994, pp. 26 (for an archival photograph of the present table in Frank Lloyd Wright’s studio)

The present lot, a rare poplar “Print Table” executed for the Home and Studio of Frank Lloyd Wright in Oak Park, Illinois, represents an iconic form crafted by the exalted 20th century American architect. One of just two commissioned for the architect’s home and studio, and therefore one of the first print tables the architect ever created, the masterpiece at hand stands as a prototype of one of Frank Lloyd Wright’s most innovative and recognizable furniture creations – and furthermore as the very surface upon which architectural masterworks were likely drafted.

In 1889, when the young architect was just 22 years of age, Frank Lloyd Wright met and married Catherine “Kitty” Tobin. In search of a home that would remain close to his new employer, the prominent architect Louis Sullivan, and their Chicago-based commissions, Wright set his sights on the nearby suburb of Oak Park, Illinois. Having found a “bargain” rate on a handsome plot, Louis Sullivan agreed to lend Wright the mortgage money in exchange for a five-year work commitment from the architect – an early indication of the architectural promise Wright immediately demonstrated. Erecting the house from the ground up, the modest family home was one of Wright’s earliest self-built projects, and one that he would continually adapt until he left Chicago in 1909. Included in these ever-changing floorplans was an added wing for the architect’s home office and studio – the space where the majority of his early period work would be conceived of and executed. It was within this architectural laboratory that Wright designed and executed both the architectural surroundings and interior furnishings for his projects, including that of his own home and studio – chief among these being the present “Print Table.” 

As manifest in the present offering, four horizontal slatted legs support the two-tiered hinged work surfaces, which interlock with vertical supports that rise above the horizontal poplar tabletop. The table exists in three varying positions: fully open as a horizontal work surface; partially open, providing both a surface to work on and a support for large documents to sit upright; and fully closed, compactly sealed for space savings. These varying positions highlight the Print Table’s versatility and intrinsic utility – a tool for both storage and support and a means of engaging with works of art. Indeed, as its title suggests, the half open orientation of the table served as an exhibition space for large prints, reflective of Wright’s deep appreciation for Japanese woodblock prints. 

The table’s materiality, too, is indicative of the inspiration that Wright derived from Japanese architecture, with minimalist execution and unadorned poplar foregrounding the texture and grain of the wood as the table’s primary visual experience. In fact, with no decoration on the table, its surfaces more demonstrably foreground the indexical trace of Wright’s own hand – bearing visible scattered minor ink stains, pin holes, and scratches from the piece’s historic use. It’s not hard to imagine these surfaces as the grounds upon which Wright worked for hours, conceiving and executing multitudes of sketches and designs that would eventually be realized for his visionary early commissions. This Print Table, therefore, served as the site from which Wright derived inspiration and carried it onto projects to follow, rendering the piece visually demonstrative of its history and ownership and placing it centrally in the canon both of and for Wright’s architectural and design achievements.

Upon Wright’s departure from Oak Park, the present table became the property of William Drummond, one of Wright’s early draftsmen who worked in the Oak Park studio. It is believed that he added the drawer present on the underside of the tabletop’s surface, thus distinguishing this table from Wright’s other examples and enhancing the piece with an additional layer of visible provenance history. 

Illustrative of the piece’s success to the architect, Wright returned to the design time and again for other well-known commissions: two for the Susan Lawrence Dana House of Springfield, Illinois; and one additional example for the Francis W. Little House in Peoria, Illinois. Of the six tables total, the remaining five are held institutionally: one in the Frank Lloyd Wright Home and Studio, now a House Museum; two in the Dana-Thomas House Museum; and the Littles' Print Table, which resides in the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s permanent collection. The present table thus remains the only example of this iconic form that will ever trade, marking the present offering as a rare and singular opportunity to acquire a material artifact of Wright’s early genius: an object born from the very hand that molded modern architecture.